168 [July, i-^is. 



The description of the punctiiration, &c., is made as it appears 

 under a very strong lens, but without the use of a compound 

 microscope. 



Some fourteen years ago 1 made a careful examination of the 

 specimens in my collection, and sent a number of examples to my kind 

 friend the late Edward Saunders, indicating the two forms, tabulated 

 above as sj). a and sp. /?., as being distinct. Saunders agreed with 

 me as to their distinctive appearance, but shortly afterwards I left 

 England for six or seven years, and nothing further was done in the 

 matter. 



Recently, through the kindness of Mr. Hugh Scott, I have 

 re-examined my old collection, now incorporated with the Walcott 

 collection in the rnuseum at Cambridge, as well as many other specimens 

 taken in later years, and yet others from various localities collected by 

 Col. C. Gr. Nurse and Mr. E. B. Nevinson. Mr. Albert Koebele, for 

 many years my colleague in economic entomology, was good enough to 

 collect many specimens for me in Baden during this Spring, so that I 

 have been able to compai'e a large number of German examples with 

 the British ones. In all, I have critically examined more than four 

 hundred specimens. 



It may be of interest to add some further notes on the diiferent 

 forms : — 



A. pcirvula, in the male sex, is a very distinct species, by the dark 

 hairs on the face. Some examples have quite evident abdominal 

 puncturation, others none, and the sculpture of the thorax also varies. 

 In some examples the hairs of the clypeus are shorter and pale, but 

 black ones occupy the sides of the face near the eye-margins. In 

 Germany the species is said to have three broods, and it is possible 

 that these are of a brood intermediate between parvula and minutula 

 proper. I have a very aberrant example with the puncturation of the 

 abdomen like some nayia and with yellow stigma, but the face clothed 

 as in ordinary parmda. It was taken on May 25th, a very late date 

 for the ^ of this species. On the same day and at the same place 

 (Bovey-Tracey) a $ with punctate abdomen was taken, but the stigma 

 is less pale. A $ from Dawlish (May 1st) also has a punctate 

 abdomen, and the stigma very pale like the Bovey (^ , the face with 

 many black hairs at the sides, and the anal fringe pale. I do not feel 

 sure that these examples are mere aberrations of parvula, and the ? ? 

 are certainly not 7iana, in spite of the abdominal puncturation. 



